I/O device switching method

Abstract

An I / O device management table that manages the types of I / O devices connected to an I / O switch is provided, and one or plural unallocated I / O devices are defined and registered as standby I / O devices. When a failure occurs in any of I / O devices, the I / O device management table is used to select an I / O device of the same type as the failed I / O device from the standby I / O devices, and the selected I / O device is allocated to a computer to which the failed I / O device is connected. I / O device management can be eased at failure in a computer including an I / O switch device.

Description

CLAIM OF PRIORITY [0001]The present application claims priority from Japanese application JP 2007-156339 filed on Jun. 13, 2007, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference into this application.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to an I / O device switching method, and more particularly to an I / O device switching method that enables selective switching of plural I / O devices connected to a server device having an I / O switch, and a computer system that includes a management server that performs the switching control.[0003]There are cases where a server device is connected with plural types of external devices such as network devices and storage devices that respectively have different protocols. Therefore, the server device is provided with plural I / O devices that process different protocols and make connections between the server device and external devices. In the case of general server devices, the correspondence between the server devices an...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]An object of the present invention is to enhance the reliability of a server device including having an I / O switch.

[0012]According to the present invention, reliability in a server device including an I / O switch can be enhanced. Particularly, when a failure occurs in a certain I / O device, a management table is consulted to select a standby I / O device, and connection switching for the I / O devices is controlled so as to connect an I / O switch to which a computer is connected, to the I / O device, whereby failure recovery can be accurately performed.

Problems solved by technology

However, if the correspondence between the server devices and the I / O devices is fixed, when the usage and the like of the server devices are changed, the I / O devices must be mounted or dismounted, making operation management complicated.

According to the related art, although the allocation of I / O devices to a server device is made flexible by the I / O switch, measures for reliability become complicated.

However, when a failure occurs in an I / O device connected to the I / O switch, since processing of the server device is halted due to the failure in the I / O device, it appears that a failure occurs in the server device.

Therefore, even if only the server device is switched using a conventional method, if the failure in the I / O device is not eliminated, recovery from the failure is impossible.

This means that a server device including an I / O switch cannot be recovered simply by detecting a failure in the server device differently from a conventional method.

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